


you can hear it in the silence

by mav



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/F, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-29
Updated: 2017-01-29
Packaged: 2018-09-20 17:20:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9502196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mav/pseuds/mav
Summary: Betty can't stop thinking about that kiss. (Vignette, mid-1x01.)





	

The first person she went to was Kevin, because she knew he'd be the expert on this.

It wasn't a stretch for Betty to assume. Kevin took a great pride in the magnitude of being Riverdale High's homolexicon - his turn of phrase.

She played it off casually enough. In celebration of her new role as a Riverdale Vixen, she had invited him over to bake cookies, and though he'd ribbed her in a good-natured tone for being a teen Martha Stewart, he'd happily agreed. They admired her cute uniform, and she shrieked with embarrassed laughter at several unwarranted details regarding a few of their classmates' anatomy. Kevin was maybe the easiest person on the planet to talk to. So, steeling herself, she dropped the bombshell on him as they were standing around her kitchen, waiting for the egg timer by the stove to go off.

"Veronica kissed me." Betty bit her lip, instantly flustered by the admission.

"I heard." Kevin was eating cookie dough off a wooden spoon, entirely unphased.

"So... You don't think that's weird?"

His eyebrow shot up. "You're going to have to explain that one to me, cupcake."

She shook her head, blonde ponytail swaying. "Not weird like _that_ , weird like... Like, what am I supposed to think about it? It didn't even have anything to do with cheerleading, and she just played it off like it was a handspring!" Bring It On hadn't prepared her for this.

"Well, you know Veronica-" After a pause, Kevin reconsidered, amending. "As much as you can at this point, anyway. I feel pretty confident in my first impression of her though. She's a definite former Head Bitch in Charge, so she's used to playing up shock value. I seriously doubt she's given this half as much thought as you have."

Betty nodded slowly, processing this. "So you don't think she's gay or anything?"

"Of course not. She's bisexual."

"What?!"

"Duh. She told me her first day." Kevin shot her an incredulous look. "You couldn't tell?"

"Obviously not!" Her face was turning beet red.

"Yeah, that's why she instantly flocked to me. She was terrified that leaving the progressive haven of New York for a small town meant her life was condemned to a hetero wasteland." He shook his head sympathetically, dropping the spoon in the sink with a clatter. "Tragic, but fortunately untrue."

"Then that changes everything!" Betty wrung her hands in the air anxiously.

Waving away her concern, he moved next to her, quick to comfort. "Does it though? Just because she's into girls doesn't mean she's into you. You can probably rest easily, Barbie, Ronnie strikes me as the sort who doesn't place a lot of importance on who she's kissing."

Betty's shoulder's drooped.

Kevin's eyes widened, zeroing in on her. "Oh my god."

She glanced over, cautious. "What?"

"Ohhh my god." He dropped his fist in his hand as if he'd just solved a mystery. "You're disappointed!"

Betty flinched, instantly defensive. "No, I'm not!"

"You are! You thought you were special!"

"I- Well, when you put it that way, of course it's disappointing-" She shook her head rapidly, her ponytail a golden blur. "No. Don't put words in my mouth. I just must have misinterpreted things, that's all..."

Kevin grinned. "Do you want to kiss her again?"

"I never said anything like that! Kevin, you know I've wanted to kiss Archie since I was twelve- _Younger_ -"

"The two aren't mutually exclusive, hon." His brow was creased in sympathy now, which only embarrassed her further.

"They are for me!"

_DING!_

As the egg timer went off, she nearly jumped out of her skin.

"Relaaax." He patted her shoulder. "If you say you're not feeling anything squishy about it, I believe you." He walked around her, grabbing an oven mitt and taking out the cookie sheet for her. "I think I know what's really going on here."

Betty is afraid to ask at this point. Fortunately, she doesn't have to.

"It's because it was your first kiss, wasn't it?"

She exhaled slowly, nodding. "Yes..."

"So it feels life-altering right now, but you'll get over it. Sometimes a kiss is just a kiss."

 

* * *

 

 

After he leaves, and Betty is alone in her girlish little room, she sits at her vanity mirror, straightening her fantastic new Vixen uniform. As her fingertips graze her collar a memory returns, unbidden. The delicate touch of Veronica's manicured hands, gingerly fastening the clasp at the back of her neck.

Betty had never felt so nervous in a locker room as she had then, moments before, swiftly changing out of her clothes. She had stubbornly stared at a locker, her back facing Veronica.

Would the other girl look her way? At that thought she had felt a guilty thrill, a tingling shudder that had run down her entire body.

It was ridiculous. Just because she could still feel the phantom pressure of Veronica's lips on hers didn't mean she would try to check her out. How rude to even assume her new friend would take advantage of the situation and gawk at her. They were friends, she had no reason to be nervous around her.

It was just nerves. It had to be. She was so thrilled to be on the team, and still riding the high of Veronica's brutal takedown of Cheryl that had earned them these skirts.

Veronica, who had stood up for her, a feeling as jubilant as it was alien. Veronica, who was probably halfway naked, right now, right behind her. Veronica, who had kissed her.

There was such a tenderness in her eyes - then, as she brushed off her uniform, touching Betty's shoulders, and before, after their lips had parted, as she held Betty's face and smiled softly at her.

Back in her room, Betty's hands fly to her cheeks, face burning. Kevin had to be right. She was having a weird phase, maybe even mourning the loss of something she'd been saving for Archie.

That was the really weird thing though. She wasn't mad at Veronica. Not at all. The thought hadn't even occurred to her until now.

They had connected on that school field, her fondness for the other girl rapidly growing by the minute. When Veronica had graciously given her an opening to bring her dream boy to the dance, she hadn't hesitated a second before insisting she join them.

Maybe it was strange. But _not_ inviting Veronica would have felt far stranger. In spite of how bizarre the afternoon had turned for her, and the whirlwind of emotions and uncertainty over Cheryl, the kiss, and making the squad, she knew, with a solemn certainty, that it would be better with Veronica there.

So far, everything else had been.

There was no use worrying about all this now, letting her mind grow invaded by anxiety about what she didn't know, or what was going on in the head of an elegant dark-haired girl who'd been as helpful as she was bewildering.

Taking a deep breath, she looked at herself in the mirror. A grin slowly spread across her face.

Riverdale Vixen.

She switched her iPod speakers on, hopping up from her chair with a twirl. Her future was sparkling, for once, and she owed it to herself to shut off her fears, if only for this moment.

Nothing happened.

There was nothing to think about.

(Honest.)


End file.
